Attorney Advertising. This is an independently researched editorial profile. Awesome Attorneys is not a lawyer referral service, does not accept payment for inclusion in this profile, and does not guarantee any legal outcome. See our Publisher Disclosure below.

Tully Rinckey PLLC: A Federal-Employee Specialist That Also Represents Employers

Most firms in this category pick a side and stay there. Tully Rinckey’s Austin office, led by Michael C. Fallings, is genuinely unusual on this list for representing both employees and employers in Texas employment matters, according to the firm’s own Houston and Austin practice pages. That mixed representation is worth stating plainly up front, since it distinguishes this firm from the employee-only practices profiled elsewhere in this category — readers considering Tully Rinckey should know that fact before anything else in this profile.

At a Glance: Austin Employment Lawyer Firm Overview

I. A National Federal-Sector Firm With an Austin Office

Tully Rinckey PLLC describes itself as one of the nation’s largest federal-sector labor, employment, and military law firms, with offices spanning California, New York, Texas, and Washington, D.C. The Austin office is led by Michael C. Fallings, who joined after working as an associate at a Maryland labor and employment firm and as a law clerk and volunteer attorney for the City of Chicago’s Labor Division. He was admitted to practice in 2013 after graduating from American University Washington College of Law. Nathan Simmons, an associate who grew up in Dallas and has lived in both Austin and Houston, rounds out the Austin trial team; Sean Timmons, a former active-duty Army JAG Corps captain stationed at Fort Hood, contributes the firm’s military law capability.

II. No Board Certification Identified; Federal-Sector Focus Instead

Awesome Attorneys did not find a current Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification for Michael Fallings or the Austin team, and does not use “specialist” language for this firm as a result. What Fallings does have is a genuinely specific niche: as Chair of the firm’s national Federal Labor & Employment Practice Group, he focuses heavily on federal employees’ cases before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the EEOC, and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) — a specialized administrative practice area distinct from ordinary state-court employment litigation, and one that few other firms in this category build out at this depth.

III. Practice Concentration: What This Austin Employment Attorney Firm Handles

On the federal-employee side, the firm handles MSPB appeals, EEOC complaints, OSC whistleblower matters, disciplinary investigations, retirement appeals, and employee grievances specifically for federal workers. On the general Texas employment side, the firm’s own Houston and Austin pages describe representing “both employees and employers,” covering discrimination, wrongful termination, and other workplace disputes without specifying separate teams or ethical walls between the two sides of that work. Readers weighing this firm against the employee-only practices elsewhere in this category should factor that difference into their comparison directly.

IV. Track Record

Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Federal-sector administrative proceedings and settlements are often confidential or produce non-public agency decisions, which limits what any firm can publish about specific case values.

Awesome Attorneys did not identify itemized, case-specific public results (verdicts, settlement amounts, or MSPB/EEOC decision citations) for the Austin office specifically. The firm’s own materials describe Fallings as having achieved “successful results” and “successful oppositions to summary judgment motions” for federal employees generally, without naming specific matters or figures. This is a genuine gap in the public record rather than a favorable data point being omitted, and it is disclosed here directly.

V. Client Voice

Awesome Attorneys did not identify a substantial, independently reviewable body of client feedback specific to the Austin office’s federal-sector practice at the time of writing. The firm operates nationally with a large attorney roster, which makes office-specific review data harder to isolate on general aggregator sites than it is for a small local boutique.

VI. Beyond the Courtroom

Fallings and the Austin team have run public CLE-style webinars on litigating employment claims in Texas federal courts and on Texas whistleblower law, a form of public legal education distinct from paid case work. Sean Timmons’s active-duty JAG service at Fort Hood adds a military-law dimension to the office’s work with service members, adjacent to but distinct from its civilian federal-employee practice.

VII. Recognition

Peer-reviewed and independently conferred credentials: Michael Fallings’s Super Lawyers Rising Stars selection for 2023, via Thomson Reuters’ peer-review process.

Media and marketing-program recognition, distinguished here rather than blended in: Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America (2026) and Lawdragon 500 Next Generation (2024–25) — legal media rankings based on a mix of nomination and editorial review rather than the same peer-review methodology as Super Lawyers or Best Lawyers, and worth weighing accordingly.

VIII. The Texas Legal Backdrop

Federal employees occupy a different legal track than private-sector Texas workers: adverse personnel actions generally go through the Merit Systems Protection Board rather than state court, discrimination claims proceed through each federal agency’s EEO complaint process before reaching the EEOC, and whistleblower retaliation claims for federal employees fall under the Whistleblower Protection Act, enforced in part through the Office of Special Counsel — each with its own strict filing deadlines, generally far shorter than the 180-day Texas Workforce Commission deadline private-sector employees use under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (Texas Labor Code Chapter 21).

For the firm’s general Texas employment work, the same state framework applies as elsewhere in this category: at-will employment with statutory exceptions, Title VII/ADA/ADEA federal claims requiring an EEOC filing first, and Fair Labor Standards Act wage claims with a two-year (three for willful violations) limitations period.

IX. Awesome Attorneys Assessment: Weighing This Austin Employment Lawyer

Tully Rinckey’s clearest strength is genuine specialization in federal-sector employment law, an administrative practice area most Austin employment boutiques don’t handle at all, anchored by an attorney who chairs the firm’s national practice group in that exact niche. That’s real, differentiated value for a federal employee specifically.

The fair caveats are significant, though: this is the only firm in this batch that openly represents both employees and employers, which readers should weigh directly against their own situation, and Awesome Attorneys could not independently verify specific case outcomes or find a substantial independent client review record for the Austin office, leaving this profile more reliant on the firm’s general self-description than on outside verification.

X. Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (tullylegal.com), including its Austin and Houston employment law pages, attorney biography pages, and webinar listings; Super Lawyers’ peer-review attorney profile for Michael Fallings; and Lawdragon’s published rankings. A search for independently posted client reviews specific to the Austin office did not surface a substantial record. Statutory and procedural information was checked against federal MSPB, EEOC, and OSC procedures and the Texas Labor Code. No case results, credentials, or quotes were invented.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Tully Rinckey PLLC prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placements clearly labeled as such, but no payment of any kind determines inclusion in, or the content of, this editorial profile. This article is for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader and Tully Rinckey PLLC or Awesome Attorneys.